New members took part in their first meeting of the Denver City Council on Monday, including, from left, Wayne New, Jolon Clark, Stacie Gilmore and Rafael Espinoza. (Jon Murray, The Denver Post)

Denver City Council President Chris Herndon receives a ceremonial gavel from member Mary Beth Susman for serving in that role in the last year. He was re-elected president for another year Monday. (Jon Murray, The Denver Post)

Despite weeks of behind-the-scenes campaigning by Denver City Councilwoman Debbie Ortega for a shot at the presidency, the result of the council’s leadership vote Monday night was another year in that slot for Chris Herndon.

Ortega continued working the phones, but it was apparent by late last week that Herndon had secured enough pledged votes. Nine members voted for Herndon, and four for Ortega.

It was the first non-unanimous vote for council president in at least five years, according to a quick check of meeting minutes. (The usual practice has been for any competition to be settled ahead of the vote.)

Denver City Councilwoman Debbie Ortega. (Campaign photo)

But Ortega said her motivation in challenging Herndon was that the council president should rotate each year. She still offered her name Monday, she said, to provide a choice.

In nominating her, new member Kevin Flynn echoed that argument, telling Herndon Monday: “From all accounts, and from personal experience, Mr. President, I believe you have done a very good job as president the past year. My personal belief as an incoming member is that the council presidency should rotate among members annually, and that is the reason that I have agreed to place Councilwoman Ortega’s name in nomination.”

Outgoing Denver City Councilwoman Judy Montero, standing, is honored by President Chris Herndon, seated to the left of her, on July 13. (Jon Murray, The Denver Post)

The seven outgoing Denver City Council members — the largest turnover since 2003 — took part in their final meeting Monday night. It was a meeting marked by tributes and farewell speeches peppered with humor, tears, and reflections on the tactics of citizen activists and the role of council members.

Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown. (Post file)

Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman honored Charlie Brown by noting his “No whining” mantra and his penchant for the pithy quote. “You are the master of the sound bite,” Susman said. “I hope that you will start giving lessons (and) do some tutoring. I don’t know how you do it.”

Brown didn’t disappoint, saying he liked being called the “cowboy councilman.” He added, “I’ve learned that you better be cowboy tough to do this job.”

He also had council staff play a 2003 clip from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” Correspondent Samantha Bee featured Brown as a foil to a citizen activist who was pressing for a “stress reduction” ballot measure that might have required the playing of soothing music in city offices. (Watch it below.)

The next morning, Mayor Michael Hancock, during Tuesday’s Mayor-Council meeting, gave each outgoing member a framed proclamation in honor of their service, along with folded city flags, spokeswoman Amber Miller said.

Here are several moments from the outgoing members’ farewells Monday night, starting with the shortest serving, Susan Shepherd, who was defeated May 5 by challenger Rafael Espinoza in northwest Denver. New council members will take office next Monday as the mayor begins his second term.

For “On the Spot,” the weekly Denver Post TV political show, I joined politics reporter Lynn Bartels and politics editor Chuck Plunkett Thursday to talk about the May 5 Denver city election. You can watch the entire On the Spot interview above, or click here.

But other races provided plenty of winners, losers and other notable outcomes in an election season that will install seven new faces on the 13-member City Council. Four of those new members still haven’t been chosen, pending runoffs June 2.

Most surprising margin: Architect and neighborhood activist Rafael Espinoza’s defeat of one-term Councilwoman Susan Shepherd in northwest Denver’s District 1 wasn’t necessarily the surprise — she long had been seen as the most endangered incumbent. But it was the 37-percentage-point margin of victory that turned heads. The drubbing delivered to Shepherd underlined that voters who cared enough to cast ballots this election were fed up about the pace and scale of redevelopment in a part of the city that’s been feeling some of the greatest pressure from it.

Redrawn boundaries take effect for Denver’s 2015 City Council election, with all 11 districts and two at-large seats on the ballot. (Courtesy city and county of Denver)

UPDATED (12:12 p.m. March 13): Reflects newly verified petitions that confirm candidates’ placement on the ballot. See ballot order as determined by a drawing on March 12 here.

With six open races and shifted district lines, the Denver election for City Council is drawing serious money. Some candidates have been surging in the last month or two.

Ahead of the May 5 election (and a potential June 2 run-off), several competitive races are heating up. In just over five weeks, mail ballots will go out to voters.

Denver mayor Michael Hancock. (Denver Post file)

Coming up on Thursday — one day after candidates must submit enough confirmed voter signatures on ballot petitions — the clerk and recorder’s office will use a random drawing to determine ballot order in each race. Also up this year are auditor and the clerk and recorder’s office. And, of course, Denver mayor. But there’s no real contest there, with Mayor Michael Hancock looking likely to slide into a second term with no serious challenge.

Even so, Hancock raised an impressive $136,515 in February, with his total contributions in this cycle topping $1.1 million.

After a couple recent council candidate withdrawals, here are how races look now, with fundraising totals through Feb. 28. (The latest campaign finance reports were filed late last week.) I’ve also noted when candidates have donated more than $1,000 to their own campaigns — one has dipped into his pockets for $50,000 — or loaned their campaigns money. And I’ve included maps that show which neighborhoods are now in each district.

Those marked with an asterisk had not yet qualified for the ballot before the March 11 deadline. (Those still marked as of March 13 failed to qualify and won’t appear on the ballot.)

>>AT-LARGE

Incumbents Robin Kniech and Debbie Ortega are seeking second terms as at-large members. Voters make two selections, and there is no run-off in this race.

Mayor Michael Hancock may have raised more than $900,000 for his re-election since 2012, including $450,914 last year, but several Denver City Council candidates also have raised relatively large hauls ahead of the May 5 election. Fifty-one candidates have filed initial paperwork for council seats, and the ballot petitioning period began this week.

Topping the list for this election cycle, according to my review of campaign finance reports, is first-term Councilman Albus Brooks, running in downtown’s District 9. He has raised $152,744 in contributions since 2012, including $63,917 last year. (Candidates’ 2014 year-end reports were due earlier this week.)

Denver City Councilman Albus Brooks. (photo credit: City and County of Denver)

Second was Kendra Black, who’s running for the open District 4 seat in southeast Denver; she raised $87,908, all of it last year after she jumped in that now-crowded race.

And third? Roger Sherman, who raised $85,541 in 2013 and 2014 while running in central Denver’s open District 10. But he dropped out, unexpectedly, in December. His 2014 year-end report shows he’s returned all of his contributions, draining his campaign account.

Rounding out the top five council fund-raisers in the cycle were Wayne New, who raised $81,844 (all last year) in his bid for District 10, and at-large Councilwoman Robin Kniech, who’s raised $81,832.

Below I’ve listed the top 10 fundraisers last year (not including any pre-2014 fundraising) and the top 10 ranked by cash on hand as of Dec. 31. (Though technical glitches were preventing some candidates from filing their reports this week, I think I’ve rounded up information from all top-raising candidates.)

Denver City Council President Chris Herndon took over council leadership in July 2014. He’s shown with Judy Montero, the president pro tem, and outgoing president Mary Beth Susman. (Photo provided by Amanda Schoultz)

UPDATE: The committee approved the full 10.3 percent salary increases 4-3. Here’s the story. Also, a third council candidate spoke up against the proposal (I’ve added his comment below).

Tuesday morning, a Denver City Council committee will wade into the tricky political waters of setting city elected officials’ salaries — including for the mayor and council members — for the first time in four years. For the overview, read this recent story.

In 2011, the process turned into a circus. The proposal bounced back and forth from a committee to the council floor a couple times, and stretched over several weeks, before the split council ultimately decided 8-5 to boost all officials’ pay by 6.6 percent. It delayed the increases from taking effect, with a portion implemented in 2013 and the rest last year.

Here they are again, and with an election coming up May 5, some council candidates hoping to join the body are staking out opposition to the proposal to grant up to 10.3 percent raises. (More on that below.)

If the maximum raises allowed under the city’s formula were adopted, the proposal would set salaries for incoming officials’ terms in July at $171,197 for the mayor, $148,061 for the auditor and the clerk and recorder, and $91,915 for council members (with the president making $11,000 more).

With six of the 13 council members not running for re-election this year, it’s unclear what the full council ultimately will decide.

Robin Kniech, an at-large councilwoman, chairs the Finance and Services Committee that will kick off discussion on the issue at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. She predicts a smoother and quicker debate this time.

New Denver City Council President Chris Herndon poses Monday, July 21, 2014, with his mother, Gloria Brown, in council chambers. (Photo provided by Amanda Schoultz)

When his colleagues elected Chris Herndon as the Denver City Council’s president for the next year Monday night, Herndon’s wife ensured the moment would have an important witness: Herndon’s mother.

Ahead of Monday evening’s leadership votes, Herndon’s wife, Genia, arranged for his mother, Gloria Brown, to travel from Kansas City to see her son’s big moment, said Herndon aide Amanda Schoultz. Herndon is nearing the end of his first term on the council, with all seats up for election in May.

The Denver Post reported last week that Herndon’s selection was likely as Mary Beth Susman prepared to step down from the top council leadership post after two years. The council, as expected, also elected veteran council member Judy Montero to president pro tem, Herndon’s former position.

Denver City Councilman Chris Herndon is expected to be elected president next week. (Denver Post file)

After two years as Denver City Council president, Mary Beth Susman is stepping aside Monday for a new leader. Council members say Chris Herndon, who represents District 11 in northeast Denver, will be the consensus pick to lead the council for the next year.

“It’s clear that Chris has got it,” said Councilman Charlie Brown, after internal discussions about potential successors to Susman.

Herndon is finishing up two years as president pro tem, and lately he has taken control of meetings a few times when Susman has been absent. In recent years, presidents typically have served no more than two years consecutively. “I think it’s important to give someone else a chance for a leadership position,” Susman said, adding about Herndon: “He is quite a leader and very thoughtful. He’s very considered about what he says and does.”

Part-time Lyft driver Brittany Cameron sits on the hood of her own vehicle, which she uses to give rides, and which is adorned with Lyft’s trademark pink mustache, in downtown Denver in February 2014. (Brennan Linsley, AP)

Denver City Council President Mary Beth Susman last month penned an op-ed in The Denver Post about what she and others have dubbed “the sharing economy.” Think UberX, Lyft, Airbnb and a growing number of businesses that connect people who want to make a little money providing a service — say, driving people around or offering a bed for the night — with eager customers hoping to save a buck compared to professional services.

But regulators have been playing catch-up. This week, Colorado legislators approved a bill that would make Colorado the first state to legally authorize ride-sharing services.

On May 12, a special issues council committee that Susman is convening, and chairing, will meet for the first time. The Sharing Economy Committee’s purpose: “to study the new sharing economy and recommend how, when and where we encourage and contend with this phenomenon.” She also wrote that the new businesses represent “an earthquake in how we think about possessions and it is making government, unions and watchdog agencies tremble about what to do about it or whether to do anything about it at all.”

Susman will be joined at the first meeting, at 3:30 p.m. in the City & County Building, by fellow council members Albus Brooks, Jeanne Faatz, Jeanne Robb and Susan Shepherd. Susman says a representative of Airbnb, which connects travelers to amateur lodgers, will be there to take part in the initial discussion.

Back to the future? A vintage photo shows the old Colfax Streetcar line, taken in 1906 looking east at Marion Street. A return to more innercity transit is among budget priorities crafted by the Denver City Council for 2015. (Photo provided by the Denver Public Library, Western History Collection.)

Near the end of a five-hour annual budget retreat Friday, the Denver City Council had whittled down dozens of members’ pet issues to 18 priorities. All they had to do was rank them before submitting the list to Mayor Michael Hancock’s office and to city agencies as city officials begin working on the 2015 budget in coming months.

Easier said than done. Some of the 12 members present in the McNichols Civic Center Building, including Paul Lopez, suggested that narrowing the list further would do a disservice to the city’s 600,000-plus residents, since many might favor lower-ranked issues as important. In the end, they filled out paper scoring ballots — assigning each issue 0 to 18 points, with the total points determining rankings — with the understanding that even lower-ranked priorities still would get sent to the agencies.

Topping today’s list: Local transit. President Mary Beth Susman is among many of the members who are urging Denver Public Works to carve out money in next year’s budget to study ways to connect Regional Transportation District transit routes with Denver neighborhoods and destinations that are far away from them. And they want the city to examine potential ways to pay for local routes that might be covered by streetcars, more frequent buses or other transit modes.Read more…

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.